In conventional seating arrangements, such as seating arrangements in a motor coach, the seats are attached or anchored to the coach structure via rails mounted along the floor and along each side wall of the coach. The rails are channel type rails that have a slotted opening along the top (for floor mounted rails) or along a side (for side wall mounted rails). The seats are mounted to the rails using a T-shaped fastener. The T-shaped fastener is inserted into the rail via the slot at any position and rotated 90 degrees to allow the “T” portion of the fastener to engage the top (or side) wall of the rail. The seats are then fastened (with bolts) to the T-shaped fasteners thereby fastening the seats to each rail and ultimately the coach.
The T-shaped fasteners are slidable along the slotted rails and thus, allow for easy repositioning of the seats. The disadvantage, however, to using T-shaped fasteners to mount the seats to the rail of the coach is that T-shaped fasteners do not meet testing requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) during seat belt safety tests. In other words, in the event of a crash, the T-shaped fasteners do not prevent the seats from becoming disengaged from the floor and side rails. As a result, seat belts are not permitted in motor coach vehicles where the seat mounting system does not meet the FMVSS.